scienceclass#1 With age comes disease. Our inevitable fate?

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We must all have noticed the correlation between age and disease. And i think a few of us must have asked themselves severally why people get more prone to disease the older they get. We are not talking of infectious diseases like cholera and HIV which require an external vector, but the diseases i mean have internal causes and run from cancer, stroke, arthritis, cardio disorders to neuro-degenerative diseases.

Senescence, this is the fancy word scientists use to refer to aging, is assumed to be something that just happens with time. The body, just like a car wears out with usage. 

But why is once a healthy body, weak and sickly just because time passed by?

What does time do to our health?

To understand this, we have to take a closer look at our bodies and how they function. A normal adult is made of 30,7 trillion cells. That many! Each cell carries the genetic instructions packed in the DNA. From the day of conception (this is when the sperm meets the egg), the fertilized cell has to divide, or should i say multiply :-)?. From this one single fertilized cell, all the other cells of your body arise; the skin cells, the liver cells, brain cells, the nails, the hair... name it. Quite cool,huh?


To make this loooong story short; after all the dividing and differentiating, all parts of the body are formed. Every organ sits where it should and does what its supposed to do, and a cute little baby is born (ooooooww!). The poor little thing is set out to the fate that we all suffer; AGING!.

At first its all nice. He is now sitting , and now he can stand, his first tooth, he can craw, he can walk, he is 10 years old, now he´s eighteen, 30, 50, 60, 80 ...oh boy! He is now an old man. His back pains and can no longer stand upright, his joints ache, his teeth are not his teeth, his hair is white or gone, he forgets constantly where he put his glasses (i know this one really well :-)) and on top of that he has to get an insulin shot three times a day for his diabetes.

Man! What happened?

Our bodies are miracle vessels. Most of the 30 trillion cells continue to divide throughout life. Some faster than others. The DNA is equipped with heavy machinery to double it and divide it again into two new cells. The division has to be so flawless. But like you can imagine, now and then mistakes do happen. Most of which are repaired straight away, nevertheless, there are some damages which remain. These damages can lead to a dysfunctional processes in your body or to reduction or accumulation of body products like hormones. The older you get the more the damages accumulate and the more damages accumulate the less perfect your once perfect body becomes.

And that is why with age your body becomes more and more prone to diseases!

Noteworthy is also the fact that the environment including life style, diet and mental state will also play a great role in this process. 

I really hope it was not too complex and boring. I thought someone might be interested.

Thanks for reading. I really appreciate.

Lots of luv,
ItsRose_Beth